On the Dotty Line

ABC’s Jon Karl:

ABC News has learned that Republicans and the White House have struck a tentative deal to raise the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline. It’s not done yet, but here is the framework of the tentative deal they have worked out, according to a source familiar with the negotiations:

•Debt ceiling increase of up to $2.8 trillion
•Spending cuts of roughly $1 trillion
•Vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment
•Special committee to recommend cuts of $1.8 trillion (or whatever it takes to add up to the total of the debt ceiling increase)
Committee must make recommendations before Thanksgiving recess
•If Congress does not approve those cuts by late December, automatic across-the-board cuts go into effect, including cuts to Defense and Medicare.

A senior White House aide pushed back against the idea that a deal was struck.

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This is not a good deal. But it is almost certainly the best doable deal. And if the across-the-board cuts can be made to stick, that would be preferable to another round of endless/fruitless/drama-queenatic horse-trading.

If Boehner can whip his caucus into line, there’s not a hemophiliac’s chance at a vampire convention that the President won’t sign it — no matter how he might protest tonight.

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